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Lot essay

Given its rare small size, the present teapot would likely have formed part of a solitaire, matched with a cup and saucer on a small tray.

A pair of cups and saucers similarly decorated to the present examples from the collection d'un amateur, the bird painting by Evans, was sold Christie's, Paris, 15 May 2003, lot 85.

The application of the rose marbré ground was tedious, involving the application of a blue ground over a fired pink ground and the scraping away of the blue to reveal the pink below in a desired marbled pattern. The same subtle difference in the treatment of the rose marbré ground on the long and short sides is apparent on the pair of smaller cuvettes 'Mahon' in the collection of the British Museum. See Aileen Dawson, French Porcelain, A Catalogue of the Collection of the British Museum, London, 1994, p. 115, no. 103, color plate 16.